How to Avoid a 2019 MIPS Penalty

Our goal: Zero Medicare penalties for ophthalmologists in 2019. No ophthalmologist should receive a Medicare performance penalty for this year’s quality reporting. Take one step this year to save $20,000 to $35,000 in 2019 for doing what you do in your everyday practice.

Spend a few minutes reporting this month, and you will save yourself thousands of dollars in 2019.

Easy options

Report one quality measure on one patient one time, or

Complete one improvement activity, or

If you already using an EHR, attest to the four advancing care information base measures.

Recommended measures

You can report on any of the available quality measures. However, the Academy identified several measures most relevant to ophthalmologists. We grouped them based on their reporting type.

For the quality category in the 2017 transition year (i.e. the first year of the MIPS program), all providers can avoid the payment penalty by simply reporting on one measure, for one patient, for one encounter.

Low-hanging fruit

If you’ve only got a little time, and limited opportunity to work on this initiative, the Academy recommends the below as the easiest measures for ophthalmologists to report on. You can report all four via claims-based reporting.

Remember – you only need to report on one of these measures this year! This is enough to avoid a 4 percent penalty in 2019.

Other available measures

All told, there are 271 available measures for the 2017 performance year. You can select any of the applicable measures. The MIPS quality measures page includes a list of 54 MIPS quality measures that are either specific or relevant to ophthalmology.

Not all of these 54 measures can be reported via claims data. Some can only be reported via EHR or the IRIS Registry/QCDR.

To filter the list, choose“claims” under the side panel labeled “Measure Types.”

The Academy is here to help

Academy staff are ready to enable your successful penalty avoidance for the first year of MIPS. Email mips@aao.org to reach one of our health policy experts with any questions you may have.